LP swings to loss

Louisiana-Pacific Corp., the Nashville, Tenn., wood products producer, reported sales of $362.4 million for its second fiscal quarter, a 19% drop from sales of $447.5 million during the same quarter last year. Net loss from continuing operations for the quarter, which ended June 30, was $33 million, compared with a net gain of $23.6 million a year ago.

"Our results for this quarter reflect significantly lower OSB pricing and decreased volume of shipments in all product lines compared with the same quarter last year," said Rick Frost, the company’s CEO. "Demand continues to be weak. Jobs, consumer confidence, inventory of vacant homes for sale and the overall state of the economy continue to have a downward pull on housing."

Looking forward, Frost forecast an “unsettled state” for the U.S. economy, one that will require companies “to be extremely agile to respond to wide swings in demand.For housing, there is growing agreement that the timing and strength of the recovery will be determined by the change in the inventory of vacant homes for sale and household formations enabled by job recovery. I believe we will see an erratic recovery for the rest of 2011 and into next year," Frost concluded.